My Blog

Posts for category: Ingrown Toenails

Perhaps one of the more painful, common conditions that we treat at Affiliated Foot & Ankle Care is the ingrown toenail. When a nail grows into the nail bed it can become red, swollen, and very tender to the touch. It’s so painful that often patients put off coming to us (which only allows the condition to get worse) because they fear how much the treatment will hurt. When an ingrown toenail is severe, or an infection has developed, our podiatrists, Dr. Ben Gujral or Dr. Nrupa Shah can do a procedure known as a partial nail plate avulsion. First, we numb the toe with an anesthetic. Then we can cut out the ingrown portion of the nail. Patients leave the office in much less pain then they came with.

Avoiding Ingrown Nails

Of course, it’s always better to prevent a foot or nail problem in the first place. Below are some ways you can help stop an ingrown toenail before it starts:

Trim nails correctly—improper trimming is the number one cause of ingrown toenails. Nails should be cut straight across and with no rounded corners. It’s also important not to trim nails so short that the skin of the toe can easily flap over the nail.

Don’t wear shoes and socks that are tight. The constant pressing of the toes together encourages ingrown nails to form.

Wash your feet daily. If you think an ingrown toenail is starting, you can soak the foot in warm water several times a day and gently massage the corner of the nail out of the skin.

No “Bathroom Surgery” Please

Do not attempt to cut the nail out yourself—this can lead to serious injury and infection. Avoid home remedies such as sticking a piece of cotton under the nail or cutting a notch out of the nail. These also will not work and will damage the nail and the toe.

If you have an ingrown toenail, don’t suffer needlessly. Contact our Edison, Linden, Monroe or Monmouth Junction office in New Jersey for an appointment today by calling: 732-662-3050.

Leg and foot injuries are common in sports like basketball, football, and soccer (just to name a few). But you rarely hear of someone breaking their foot/leg during a NASCAR race. That’s just what happened though to 29-year old Kyle Busch. He hit a concrete wall during an Xfinity Series race at the Daytona International Speedway and was said to have broken his right leg and he also sustained a midfoot fracture of his left foot. Unfortunately, this means he will miss the highly popular Daytona 500. This injury may have been avoided had the Speedway installed the SAFER (steel-and-foam energy reduction) barrier. “We’re going to fix that. We’re going to fix that right now” said Daytona track president, Joie Chitwood.

Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) are common causes of lower extremity injuries; especially the ones sustained by Mr. Busch. Although not common throughout the general population, midfoot fractures (also known as Lisfranc fracture dislocations) are commonly associated with MVA’s. These fractures only comprise 0.2% of all foot fractures. The midfoot joint is comprised of the bases of your metatarsal bones and your three cuneiforms and cuboid bones. The Lisfranc joint also has a Lisfranc ligament which attaches to the lateral aspect of the 1st cuneiform and the medial aspect of the base of the 2nd metatarsal bone. Once this injury occurs it is likely the patient will need to have surgical intervention as conservative treatment does not seem to work as well. There are different degrees of this injury which correlate to different surgical approaches. So, if you have sustained this type of injury please do not hesitate to call your local podiatrists at Affiliated Foot and Ankle Care located in Monroe and Edison, NJ. Although surgery usually helps alleviate the symptoms, post-traumatic arthritis usually occurs in all patients with this type of fracture.

Lower extremity injuries are most common in high impact sports or sports that involve lots of cutting and jumping. Although this isn’t the case in NASCAR, they are traveling at speeds exceeding 200mph so if they do crash I would expect to see them injure some part of their body. From everyone here at AFACare, we would like to send our condolences to the Busch family and hope he has a speedy recovery.

Ingrown toenails walk tenderly into my office on a daily basis. Treating ingrown toenails is one of the everyday procedures that podiatrists perform on a weekly if not daily basis.

Ingrown toenails are basically sharp edges of nails that grow into the skin at the edges of the nail. The edge of the nail normally only grows outward and away from the skin but this can go awry if you're not careful. So why does this happen?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Don't wear tight shoes! Your toes need plenty of space so give yourself a big toe box with space above and in front of your toes. Tight shoes force the nails downward and can eventually cause your toenails to become rounded. Believe it or not you can actually predispose yourself or your children to ingrown toenails if the shoes worn are too tight. When your toes are still developing during childhood, you can cause permanently rounded nails that can dig into the skin with any downward pressure. There are also some people with naturally rounded nails that are more likely to develop ingrown toenails.

The actual cause of the ingrown nails is almost always tight shoes and improper nail care. People that don't wear shoes will never (well, I'll say almost never) develop ingrown toenails. When cutting your nails always cut straight across and be careful not to cut them too short, especially on the sides of the nail. You definitely want to stop cutting before the nail attaches to the skin.

Another factor that can increase your risk is weight bearing trauma to the toes. When playing basketball for instance, if you have tight shoes you are constantly slamming your toes into your shoe and the floor which is pushing the skin into the nail. The more you damage the skin the more inflamed it can become and the skin may actually grow and swell up over the nail (if the nail is cut too short).

What does this mean for you? If you commonly get ingrown toenails then take a look at your shoes. They are probably too small. If you live in warm weather you can wear open toes shoes to stop ingrown nails. Be more conservative when cutting your nails and don't cut your nails too often.

Ingrown toenails can develop and get out of control quickly. They often get infected and swollen and very painful. In this case you should make your way to your local podiatrist who is equipped with the tools and expertise necessary to return your nails to normal. Seriously, you can walk in with extreme pain and walk out feeling great. Actor Mark Wahlberg recently underwent a procedure for an ingrown toenail and showed up at the Critics Choice awards that same night. Recovery from these simple procedures is quick and the pain relief is instant.

We’ve all had or known someone who has had an ingrown toenail. And everyone’s first reaction that hearing those words “ingrown toenail” is Eew! Let’s be honest, they are pretty gross, ugly and can be very painful. But this is a very common injury for athletes and for the average person. Some of our favorite celebrities, like Lady Gaga or Ke$ha, have probably suffered from these from all the crazy shoes they wear! This is a very common injury and it is nothing to be embarrassed about, it happens to more people than you think!

The major causes for a toenail to become ingrown include wearing too small shoes and forcing the nail to grow improperly, or by cutting the nail too short and it grows into the skin after being cut wrong. The common symptoms associated with this are a painful, tender area of the affected toe and nail, swelling, redness and possibly an infection.

Many people think this is something that they can take care of on their own, getting tweezers or nail clippers and digging it out; this is a BAD idea! This is how people get infections from ingrown nails. It may seem weird but podiatrists are trained on how to properly fix an ingrown toe nail and keep your toe from getting infected! Your local podiatrist at Affiliated Foot and Ankle Care located in Edison and Monroe NJ, can help you take care of this minor problem!

You can also make the situation a little better by soaking your foot in a warm salt water 3-4 times a day. And next time you cut your nails make sure you cut straight across, do not try to round the edges and do not cut them too short!